10/10
Excellent
2 July 2000
Warning: Spoilers
This film is quite true to life, but as Ingrid Bergman said herself, movies are for entertainment, therefore some liberties have to be taken. Bergman's return to WangCheng to marry Colonel Linnan is implied in the final scene. As to Meryl Streep being more suitable as a previous commenter suggested - words fail me!!!! Ingrid Bergman was and IS far greater than Meryl Streep - there is no comparison. Miss Bergman made no attempt to conceal her accent at the beginning of the movie - as a previous commenter suggests. She is so well-known that no one bothers to take any notice of her accent and she can play anyone of any nationality. This is a brilliant film and I happen to know that Miss Bergman researched her role in detail; she spoke at length to a Chinese lady who had had her feet bound as a child - this was when on location in North Wales. The lady was helping to look after the Chinese children. In real life Gladys Aylward DID succeed in getting one hundred children across the mountains to safety in Sian. This is a lovely film, extraordinarily well-acted by all - especially by Miss Bergman, Curt Jurgens and Robert Donat [whose last film it was]. Watch it!!!!! It's great. I don't think cynical comments have any place where this film is concerned. Today's films are nothing compared with films made in the 1940s and 1950s - they are all blood and thunder and special effects [Titanic, for example]. Visit our Yahoo club Ingrid Bergman International for more details of great films! Mary Hutchings
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